Besides funfairs, Penistone Show, Penistone cinema and activities in ever-lengthening Events List, here are a few other activities that Penistone people do for leisure, sport and entertainment. Please see the Clubs and Societies links page for contact details.
Sport and Outdoor Pursuits
Penistone has a Cricket Club (Spring Vale), Bowling Club and Penistone Church Football Club (which has senior and junior teams). Penistone Footpath Runners are based at the Football Club and enjoy a healthy following with events scattered throughout the year. Their 10km hill race on Show day is particularly popular, drawing runners in from all over the country. PFR have a large membership and their runners attend all of the national events.
Penistone has a sports centre ('Leisure Centre') with karate, five-a-side football, various exercise machines, dance classes, junior classes and a multi-gym. Across the road is a private swimming pool for anyone to book. Penistone & District Angling Club has a long history and welcomes new members. On Penistone Showground, you will find a skateboard park, a kick wall and often a Junior football team will arrive or horsey activities might spring up from nowhere, such as gymkhana. Kids also go to the large recreation field on Church View Road (next to PCFC) or to Water Hall park for a kick-around.
The Rambler's Association and other walking groups have events in this area. Outside Penistone, there is Pennine Sailing Club at Dunford and another boat club at Hade Edge. Penistone Line Partnership puts musical events on specific train journeys between Huddersfield and Sheffield on the Penistone line but they also organise station to station walks, which take in the pubs. The Round Table are involved with many popular local events and they also organise walks, such as the Boundary Walk.
Song, Music and Stage
Penistone has long had a thespian tradition, with two soccieties who each put on at least two big productions each year. They are very happy to accept budding new thespians of all ages.
Art and History
Penistone does not have a museum but Cawthorne village has a small museum a few miles away and Wortley Top Forge is an industrial museum, with all sorts of steam-driven machinery. Local historian Neville Roebuck has made his wide collection of historical materials available in the Penistone Archive, on Thursdays at the Town Hall. It has all been scanned on computer now. Penistone has a small Historical Society on an invitation basis. There are two art groups in the area; Hen's Teeth and the more commercially orientated Pennine Artists, who both share a common background. An Embroiders' Guild completes the picture.
Of course, our fine Penistone Church is a piece of history in itself with its origins in the twelfth century and its tower is half a millennium old. There are occasional historical exhibitions in the church. WEA has regular lectures on historical and other local matters, open to the public and its activities listed near the Post Office.
Photography
Penistone Camera Club is another well-regarded organisation with a very long history. Penistone Show is an occasion when the public will submit their own best photos to win a prize and the club marquee is always very well attended.
Beauty Spots
When the sunny weather comes around, Cannon Hall gardens at Cawthorne Park are very (too!) popular, either for a stroll by the river, a kick-araound with a ball, an ice-cream in the sun, a walk around the gardens, throwing bread to the ducks, taking the kids to an open farm, inspecting the museum exhibits, visiting the nearby Garden Centre or just for a sit down and a cup of tea. Penistone has a less grand yet popular beauty spot on the top road at Hartcliff. In fact there's not much there except a road with verges large enough to park a few cars and a couple of wooden benches to sit on. But it is a little escape from civilisation and has a nice view of the sweeping and (so far) largely unspoilt views of Langsett reservoir and the grouse moors of the Peak District. Oddly enough, Hartcliff has also established itself as a place to congregate to watch natural phenomena, such as comets and eclipses. It is well away from street lights and has hardly any light pollution at night.
The Younger End
There are recreation grounds (swings, slides, etc.) for small children on Church View Road, Spring Vale by the Britannia and another down Oxspring. Kids will love the obstacle course behind Cubley Hall and plenty of grassed area for a kick-around with a football.
Youths like to use the Skateboard Park mentioned above. There is also a Youth Club: the Surf and Snack Shack, which is located just off the High Street opposite Ward Street. Penistone Scouts (and the old 'Girl Guides') is another society with a long history. It has a large meeting hall on Wentworth Road, where loonie drivers deposit and collect their offspring, too tired to walk. There is also a Brownies section for little sprogs. The theatrical groups mentioned above will also take young potential actors and actresses.
